Sean Couturier Overdue for Breakout Season

[King Knut]

Just now, fanaticV3.0 said:

 

That's exactly what excuse is.

 

THIS is what this thread is really about.  People not paying attention and reading the words they think they want to hear in order to fuel antagonism rather than the words actually written.

 

I'm not saying it's unfair to judge him on offense because he hasn't been asked to do that, I'm saying that offense is inherent in the position and he must be judged on that.  You can't give him a free pass because he's been tasked with roles challenging to producing offense.

 

All I am saying is that if we're going to be fair, yes.  clearly we need to judge him harshly on his offense, while also judging him on the specific roles he's been asked to fill that other players have not.  He's the 6th best scorer on the team and clearly we'd want better from him than that.  However, there are things he does far better than almost anyone else that are incredibly important.  

 

If you like baseball, I'd suggest saying that Chooch was an okay hitter.  Certainly not a legendary Phillie at the plate and certainly not a generational catcher defensively.  However, calling pitches and being an ace whisperer making good pitchers great and great pitchers amazing is what really gave Chooch his value to those Phillies teams.  

 

 

[Podein25]

55 minutes ago, King Knut said:

The problem is that he was never put in a position to develop those skills as a player, which isn't an excuse, it just says to me that while we can judge him harshly on them, to be fair, we should also judge him on the areas of the game he has been asked to deliver on.  

 

While it is true that he was never put in that position, he appears to have done nothing on his own (aka practice and work) to improve the two things that could have propelled him into that position (e.g., more offensive zone starts, better/more skilled linemates), namely skating/foot speed and shooting.

 

Anyway, that's where I've landed on Coots: He simply hasn't done the work that would have made him a true second line Center/PP player. That's on him. He will make about 4-5 million less per year playing hockey as a result.

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

6 hours ago, Podein25 said:

 

While it is true that he was never put in that position, he appears to have done nothing on his own (aka practice and work) to improve the two things that could have propelled him into that position (e.g., more offensive zone starts, better/more skilled linemates), namely skating/foot speed and shooting.

 

Anyway, that's where I've landed on Coots: He simply hasn't done the work that would have made him a true second line Center/PP player. That's on him. He will make about 4-5 million less per year playing hockey as a result.

In fairness, last season and this season were the only seasons he's ever entered the off season not requiring surgery. I think Couturier made an improvement to his skating last year and from what I read, he wants to get faster and is working on his skating again this year.

[Podein25]

11 hours ago, BobbyClarkeFan16 said:

I think Couturier made an improvement to his skating last year and from what I read, he wants to get faster and is working on his skating again this year.

 

If he did, it's hard to see. I will believe it when I can actually see it. 

[King Knut]

11 hours ago, BobbyClarkeFan16 said:

In fairness, last season and this season were the only seasons he's ever entered the off season not requiring surgery. I think Couturier made an improvement to his skating last year and from what I read, he wants to get faster and is working on his skating again this year.

 

His injuries are a slight cause for concern for me and I'm his biggest defender it seems.  Part of his numbers problem is simply that he's missing 1/4 of the season. 

Last season, like Giroux, he admitted that he was having problems when he came back from his injury.

 

Also like Giroux, he looked significantly better at the end of the season after the trade deadline.  It was almost night and day after Filppula arrived even though he got stuck with Weise for good at that point.  Weise improved as well somehow.  Was it the addition of Filppula somehow or the subtraction of Streit?  

 

Regardless, his injury seriously held him back last year and the continued occurrences of them concern me.  He's lost major games two years running and needed off season work before that.  

 

One major problem with bringing him Pro at the age he was brought up IMHO is that he was never really able to put on the weight he needed to to fill out his size.  He's a tall dude, but not a big dude and when you're drawing the assignments he does, it's going to wear on your knees and your hips and your core a lot.  He's also had so many off season rehab regimes that I cold see him not really being permitted to adhere to a strict weight training regime on top of it.  

 

Who knows if he did this year.  An off season of skate clinics (the Flyers purport to be good at this) and weight training might go a long way for Couturier.